And as for the Nichia 219c head,well as you can see on the picture xp-g3 head has a 14mm scratch when it arrived,(now im sure that scratch wont effect light output?)but i was just a little bum out with that scratch so i figured i wont contact the vendor and see what they can do for me,long behold they replace it,but with a different tint.

Wow, that was fast. Already arrived today safe and sound. Looks and works great. Damn nice beam pattern. Took a couple pics, but am having trouble uploading. I'll post them tomorrow. Thank you joker145.

My wife likes cold white, I like neutral tints. For now, we have the light set up like this so that we can try out both tints. Sorry for the blurry pic. I didn't notice it until I saw the upload this morning.

Of course, had to do a couple quick and easy mods first. I think we'll keep the light pretty much stock for the time being. Just some resistance mods to reduce parasitic power consumption when being used. It has been reported that the driver spring fully compresses in the light. That does appear to be the case. But my unprotected cells are a bit loose in the carrier. WARNING: This mod removes the reverse polarity protection built into the carrier. Extreme care needs to be taken when loading the cells after this mod. Anyone copying it, does so at their own risk.

The left picture is the "butt" side of the carrier. I like to have this side towards the tail of the host to reduce the electrical path to the driver. The right picture is the side I like to have against the driver. I used 22gauge mainly because it's the only good wire I currently have. Time to place an order.

Also cleaned up all the contact surfaces between the above PCB's and the contact plates. Almost all the battery carrier screws were loose. So snugged those up on reassembly. Feels much more solid now. Still need to clean up the contact surfaces on the driver and will probably swap in thicker leads when I get them.

I didn't get a chance to take any beam shots last night. When I do, I'll post them. It may be hard to do the beam justice though. It has to be the smoothest beam pattern I've ever seen. As others have said, you really need a big open space with distance to it to appreciate what this light does.

Almost all the battery carrier screws were loose. So snugged those up on reassembly. Feels much more solid now

Same on my MF-01 (very early second batch with the 6S 3P led arrangement and newer driver). Nichia, which I think perhaps run hotter.

But more seriously, I discovered that the three screws holding down the MCPCB to the shelf were loose and/or stripped. After a few hours of experiments leading me to be disappointed with (I thought) early thermal step-down on levels less than turbo, I heard a rattle in the head.

It turned out one of the three screws had come out and was rattling around, the other two were loose. Turned out the missing screw had stripped threads in the head, and the other two stripped as soon as I applied very modest torque. The screws were far too short, barely any thread engagement. The first few threads in the shelf were all stripped.

Perhaps Mateminco realised this weakness and set their screwdrivers to a very low torque to mitigate ?

After installing much longer screws everything is now as it should be, the MCPCB is firmly secured and thermally it seems to be behaving better. All levels except Turbo are now usable without step-down for reasonable durations.

I didn’t check the thermal compound under the MCPCB at the same time, didn’t want to disturb it, but I’m fairly sure it is good.There is definitely some there.

It is now a torch that I have confidence in, and is exceptionally good. I have even got used to the primitive UI.

Tip: if not sure what mode it was last left in, just disconnect the battery with a slight twist of the tube, reconnect, then it will start in ultra-low. Saves you from e.g. turning straight on in Turbo when you just want to go to the bathroom at night, or having to cycle all the way through Turbo just to set a lower level.

I also think the contact springs in the head are slightly too long, becoming coilbound before the tube is properly tightened, maybe putting too much stress on the driver board, will investigate and maybe crop a coil off them if necessary. Brass contact surfaces on the battery and driver ground ring I think benefited from some metal polish after bedding in. Witness marks suggest so. Meanwhile it is working very well